1995 Kistler Vine Hill Vineyard Chardonnay - 750ml
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1995 Kistler Vine Hill Vineyard Chardonnay - 750ml

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1995 Kistler Vine Hill Vineyard Chardonnay - 93 pts!
For Steve Kistler and his longtime assistant Mark Bixler, this is a reference point winery for New World Chardonnay although their viticultural and winemaking techniques are decidedly Burgundian. Interestingly during the last year I have had an opportunity to taste some ten year old Kistler Chardonnays and they have aged well in the bottle.

While a decade is not long when compared with some long-lived white Burgundies by the standards of most California Chardonnays which are generally best consumed during their first 1-3 years of life the Kistler techniques of whole cluster pressing slow malolactic fermentation aging on their lees in high quality French oak and bottling without fining or filtration appear to be producing longer lived Chardonnays. Kistler has enjoyed a run of terrific vintages in the new century. Moreover they seem to be ratcheting up their performance in terms of the quality and complexity of their Pinot Noirs. 
Varietal Chardonnay
Vintage 1995
Rating 93 RP
Bottle Size 750 ml
Bottle Quantity 1
Country USA
Region California
Location North Coast
Producer Kistler
Color White
Wine Type Table
Rating 93 RP - 1995 Kistler Vine Hill Vineyard Chardonnay - 93 pts! The 1995 Chardonnay Vine Hill Road Vineyard was tight but unlike the McCrea Vineyard Chardonnay 5-10 minutes of swirling and breathing caused the wine to blossom beautifully. It offers an Acacia flower sweet honeysuckle-scented nose with plenty of concentrated fruit. Full-bodied and well-delineated this appears to be a dazzling complex unfined unfiltered Chardonnay with a provocative stony minerality that provides additional complexity. It should improve for at least a decade. Can anyone think of another winery that produces so many profound Chardonnays? While the production of the single vineyard Chardonnays is small Kistler's total production reaches 18000 cases. All of their marvelous Chardonnays are bottled without any filtration and some without fining. It should be obvious from those comments that Kistler Vineyards is breaking new qualitative ground in view of what they are able to achieve at these production levels.All of the 1995 Chardonnays are as strong as the brilliant line-up of 1994s. Moreover Kistler Chardonnays all possess a complex creamy white Burgundy-like aromatic and textural profile. In fact I find them difficult to pick out as California Chardonnays when inserted in a blind tasting of premier and grand cru white Burgundies. I am in the enviable position of being able to taste all of these wines side by side. While they all possess slightly different styles they share the following characteristics: 1 outstanding purity 2 natural rich textures and 3 a nicely layered mouthfeel. My comments on the 1995s are given in this article in the order in which owner/winemaker Steve Kistler and his assistant Mark Bixler thought I should taste them.Readers having a difficult time finding the Kistler wines should realize that a healthy percentage of the 18000 case production is sold via the winery's direct mailing list with much of the balance going to our country's top restaurants. The winery also tends to release its wines later than others because of their aging potential.Kistler Vineyards is at the pinnacle of the California qualitative pyramid. Particularly admirable is the fact that they got there the hard way - they earned it. RP
Wine Spectator
Burghound
Varietal Chardonnay
Vintage 1995
Rating 93 RP
Bottle Size 750 ml
Bottle Quantity 1
Country USA
Region California
Location North Coast
Producer Kistler
Color White
Wine Type Table
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